


Amidst the Roses

by hopedespite



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Endgame Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Endgame Lukanette, F/M, Fashion Design Student Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, First Meetings, Fluff, Lbscexchange, Lukanette, Music Major Luka, violinist Luka
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-26
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-16 21:48:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29707050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hopedespite/pseuds/hopedespite
Summary: In which a sleepy Luka reminisces on his chance meeting with Marinette outside of the campus's rose garden.
Relationships: Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 7
Kudos: 51
Collections: 2021 Exchange





	Amidst the Roses

**Author's Note:**

  * For [accidental_genius1](https://archiveofourown.org/users/accidental_genius1/gifts).



> This is written for @accidental_genius1 for the LBSC 2021 Valentine's Day Exchange! I've stepped in as your secret admirer, so happy belated Valentine's Day, you wonderful human being! 💕 I'm so sorry you had to wait, but I hope you enjoy!  
> Also, thank you so much to the beautiful @NerdyPanda3126 for beta reading!

Luka woke with a sniffle. And scrunching his nose only seemed to make the matter worse.

Sniffling slightly harder, he peeked his eyes open and realized that hair was what had awoken him; more specifically, Marinette’s hair, which had fallen over the edge of her pillow and was currently spilling into his face.

Tickled nose aside, he certainly had no reason to complain about waking up to the mild scent of her vanilla-scented shampoo. In recent months, it had come to be one of his favorite scents, making even vanilla pastries a newfound favorite of his.

And so, shifting slightly with a light sneeze, Luka leaned over to pull Marinette’s bangs back across her forehead, tucking back the stray lock that had awoken him.

He couldn’t help but sigh with utter lovesickness at the way she seemed to smile bashfully, even in her sleep.

Her bashful smiles were, after all, part of what had captured his heart in the first place when they initially met.

___________

Last semester, Luka had been on his way to the university rose garden, his violin case in one hand and a folder of blank sheet music in the other. The romantic environment and greenery, he thought, just might provide the ideal inspiration for his next music theory composition.

Thus, as he finished his cross-campus trek, his attention had been so thoroughly fixated on constructing chord progressions that he hadn’t noticed the flash of pink and black marching down the intersecting path toward the garden until—

“Gah!”

A young girl about his age tilted toward the pavement, her arms wheeling out and her heels digging uselessly as their collision knocked her backward.

“Whoa, there!” Luka shot his free arm out, wrapping it deftly around the girl’s waist just in time to keep her from losing her balance entirely. His folder was still clutched between his fingers, so he had to lean in a little more to ensure his hold on her figure was secure. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t see you.”

In this position—with the girl twisted back and dipping into the streaming sunlight—Luka did his best to catch her shy, stuttering response instead of focusing on how soft her cheeks looked, brightened with a light blush.

“I’m sorry, what was that?” he tried again.

The girl blinked up at him and bit her lip. “I, um, I said you can let go of me now…”

“Oh!” Luka righted himself, retracting his arm once he knew she was steady. “I, well—Are you okay?”

“Y-yeah, I’m fine!” The girl looked up at him with a sheepish smile, one hand self-consciously checking her tight bun of black hair for flyaways. “I’m so sorry, I should have been paying more attention.”

“I should be the one apologizing,” Luka rebutted coolly. “I wasn’t exactly looking up while walking across a pretty central area on campus.”

“Oh, no, really, I’m super clumsy, I should have just been watching out better.”

Luka simply smiled, cocking his head to one side.

“Well, okay, Super Clumsy. I’m Luka,” he chuckled in an attempt to dispel their awkward introduction. “And to apologize for nearly pushing you into the sidewalk, can I at least offer to walk you to wherever you were going before I ran into you?”

The girl hesitated, her blush deepening.

“I—uh, sure.” She gestured to herself nervously. “Marinette! I mean, my name is Marinette, not Super Clumsy. I mean, I am! Super clumsy, that is, but my name is Marinette. And I just _happen_ to be super clumsy.”

She groaned, dropping her face into one palm as the other pressed a notebook in against her chest. “Would it be too late to ask you to forget bumping into me today?”

Luka could only grin wider, attempting to bite back the laughter on his tongue so as to not make the girl— _Marinette_ —think he was laughing at her.

“Well, Marinette,” he said evenly, “I’d rather remember this moment. After all, I’d hate to nearly do it again to some other student unfortunate enough to run across me when I'm not paying attention. But if you don’t want me to walk with you, I definitely understand, and I’ll just be on my way.”

The heady scent of the nearby blossoms swirled around them, pulling slow, swirling shades of lilac and fuschia to Luka’s mind.

But the girl’s presence wove in new threads of warm vanilla.

Luka’s fingers itched to transcribe the colorful sensations to that of music. He could almost imagine now how it would feel to coax the fragments of this newfound melody out of his violin, his wrist flexing with ease as he felt the vibration of the strings hum through his bow and up his arm.

The girl’s hand froze on her bun, meanwhile, and her eyes widened a fraction before she finally released a slightly breathy laugh.

“No, no, it’s not that I would mind,” she explained, holding up the spiral-bound notebook that had been pressed to her chest a moment ago. “It’s just that I’m already here. I was on my way to the rose garden.”

“Oh, is that a sketchbook?"

“It is,” Marinette responded, her shoulders loosening as their conversation broached familiar ground. A bashful smile danced upon her lips. “I’m a fashion design major, and I was hoping to design my new line for this semester’s final project around a floral theme, which was why I came out here to sketch.”

Luka drummed his fingers along the handle of his violin case thoughtfully.

“Admittedly, I came out here for inspiration, too,” he said. “If you don’t mind a little company, that is.”

The rose garden sat placidly in the shape of a thick green shell along the edge of the walkway, featuring several remote corners where wooden benches sat tucked amidst the climbing hedges and cool shade.

If Marinette didn’t want company, Luka thought, it would be easy enough to space himself out and maintain their respective privacy. But to his pleasant surprise, the girl just nodded.

“It looks like you’re an artist, too,” she said simply, gesturing to his case. “I’m usually surrounded by other fashion majors all day, except my best friend, who’s a journalism major. So I wouldn’t mind getting to see someone else’s artistic process. If _you_ don’t mind a little company, that is.”

Luka perked up, all semblance of coherent thought fleeing his mind as his stomach was overtaken by butterflies.

He had never felt that strong with words, after all, which was one of the reasons he had become a music major in the first place. And so, instead of responding, he wordlessly stepped aside and swept one arm out to indicate that she could lead the way.

Of course, Marinette looked just as thoroughly nerve-wracked as he felt, so he decided to still maintain a fair amount of respectful space, hoping to put them both at ease.

As soon as they reached a quiet corner where neat rows of white buds sat nestled alongside a bush of traditional red roses, he immediately ducked down to unlatch his case and begin the motions of readying his instrument.

He started by attaching and adjusting his shoulder rest before giving a cursory glance to the girl as she settled on a bench a few feet away.

Then, with his instrument securely tucked between his chin and left shoulder, he tightened the screw of his bow, removed the soft protective fabric from around his rosin, and began to apply it in long, methodical strokes.

Luka could feel Marinette’s eyes skimming over him from afar.

“What is that?” she asked hesitantly, as though afraid to disturb his ritualistic set-up.

“It’s rosin,” he explained. “It makes the hairs of my bow stickier, for lack of better words, so that there’s enough friction between my bow and the strings. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to produce adequate sound.”

“Oh,” was all she had the chance to say before he straightened and began to tune his instrument.

Inhaling deeply, the familiar open fifths of Luka’s violin strings calmed his nerves. It took only a brief moment before he shifted and began to test out the first few measures of the new piece that had begun to take shape in his mind mere minutes before.

In his peripheral vision, Luka watched as Marinette’s bashful smile resurfaced, and she leaned back into the bench with a relaxed sigh. Soon enough, she had flipped her sketchbook open to a blank page and pulled out a freshly-sharpened pencil from her purse, quickly overtaken by her own work, as well.

The two stayed that way for the better part of an hour—Luka lulled into the sense of peace he invariably felt as his calloused fingers pressed into the strings, and Marinette contentedly sketching out the preliminary drafts of her new fashion line of the semester.

The gentle _swish_ of her pencil strokes was lost beneath the waves of music, and it wasn’t long before the sky had darkened above the two, the stars beginning to emerge as they remained in a companionable and yet separate world of their own.

The roses didn’t seem to mind the company.

___________

Marinette finally stirred when she heard Luka sneeze and felt him brushing her bangs aside.

She blinked slowly into the morning, warmed by the sight of another fresh vase of pink roses on her nightstand.

In response to her movement, Luka leaned over to skim a chaste kiss over her cheek before resting back against the bed, one arm wrapped securely around her waist.

Though she pretended to still be asleep, simply to live in the delicate moment a little longer, Luka wasn’t fooled.

“You’re going to have to get up soon, you know,” he murmured from behind her, “or you’re going to be late for class again.”

Marinette sighed, humming in response.

“It’s an optional day,” she mumbled back. “Makeup day for students who missed one of the last quizzes. I haven’t missed any. I’d rather stay here with you for the morning.”

She twisted in the sheets, spinning lazily to face him. With one hand cradling his cheek, she planted a gentle kiss to the tip of his nose before gingerly pressing her lips to his own.

“If you don’t mind a little company, that is.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you guys so much for reading, and you can also find me on [Tumblr](https://writtenbyrain.tumblr.com/)!


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